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The History of Contraception Exhibit is on display on the third floor of the Allen Memorial Medical Library.
Go to Museum hours and driving directions
The Dittrick Medical History Center learned in August that it would receive the Percy Skuy Collection on the History of Contraception. Mr. Skuy, past President of Ortho Pharmaceutical (Canada), assembled the world's most comprehensive collection of historical contraceptive devices, numbering over 650 artifacts. Dittrick Chief Curator Jim Edmonson first saw the collection in 1998, when Janssen-Ortho hosted the Medical Museum Association meeting at their headquarters in Toronto. He found the collection fascinating, but never imagined that it would one day reside at the Dittrick.
Percy Skuy's collecting began in 1965 and encompassed all manner of contraceptive devices, from a broad variety of cultures and time periods, and eventually developed into a "History of Contraception Museum". This Museum traveled the globe in the 1990s, having been displayed at medical meetings from Singapore to Switzerland. In 2000 Mr. Skuy initiated the search for a new permanent home for this collection, where it might be studied, exhibited, and enjoyed by a broader public.
In the summer of 2003 Percy Skuy contacted Jim Edmonson at the Dittrick to discuss the prospect of the collection coming to Case. Edmonson saw that this remarkable collection might serve as the catalyst for unique learning opportunities for College of Arts and Sciences faculty and students, and others throughout the University. He therefore assembled a group of Case professors who contemplated making use of the Skuy Collection, including Jonathan Sadowsky (History), Renée Sentilles (History), Athena Vrettos (English), and Dorothy Miller (Center for Women). Each contributed a prospectus indicating the ways in which he or she envisioned using the contraceptive collection. Edmonson also outlined how the Dittrick would care for and present the collection, which further impressed Mr. Skuy.
In August 2003 Mr. Skuy paid a visit to campus and met with Edmonson and his colleagues, as well as Assistant Dean Jill Korbin (CA&S), Dittrick Museum registrar Jennifer Nieves, and Dittrick medical advisor Anthony Tizzano, M.D. (Cleveland Clinic Foundation). They presented how the collection would be used at Case, and Mr. Skuy in turn expressed his aspiration that the collection would be publicly displayed and studied in a scholarly way. The day concluded with a visit to meet Provost James Wagner. Wagner, who early in his career had worked in the FDA Center for Devices, was conversant with the many issues of the Dalkon shield IUD controversy and the two discussed this at length. Mr. Skuy left the Case campus knowing that there was strong interest in his collection, from the top ranks to the trenches. Although much impressed with the Dittrick, he nevertheless continued his careful search, visiting other leading medical museums. At the conclusion of this process, Mr. Skuy determined that the Dittrick met his criteria best. He then presented his recommendation to Janssen-Ortho, Inc. Finally, on August 25, 2004, the company donated the Skuy Collection to Case, where it will find a welcome new home at the Dittrick Medical History Center.
Media personnel: To obtain a press release and/or photography concerning the Contraception Museum contact Susan Griffith at susan.griffith@case.edu |
